Today Lord, I pray,
For these fellow brothers and sisters
Who for church homes they do seek.
We know there’s a place for them
To draw encouragement from every week.
Not a place for their entertainment,
But one where they can actively participate.
Not just on church committees,
But among those whose needs are great.
A church that still believes in the Bible.
Believes that it teaches right from wrong.
A congregation of God worshippers,
Who hear and mean the lyrics of their praise songs.
No church we know is perfect,
Comprised of flawed human kind,
But guide them to Your choice for them to serve You,
And help them understand what they find.
dfav 5/12/17

Today, the mood within me is foul.
It is ugly, mean and downright hateful
And if my friends and I value our relationships
We’re going to keep our distance
Or it won’t stop ’til one of us throws in the towel.

Lord, I recognize the anger boiling in me isn’t balanced.
It isn’t interested in any more information
And I’ve tolerated all this woman can.
For this one period in time can’t they just be quiet?
Or one of us will be shocked I ever kept anything silenced.

Lord, it isn’t one thing I’m ticked off about,
So warn others to not try to reason with this ugliness,
They, nor You have to accept it,
Run in the opposite direction quickly!
But if they choose to stay and prod the bear, the mean is coming out.

Today, Lord, I would like to slap the smugness,
The arrogance, the entitlement right out of people,,
So I plea with them to back away, far away
And take their immaturity right along with them,
Cause I am angry with no desire for righteousness.

Lord, You know the many times I have kept my temper,
I have looked at it from all sides,
I have tried to understand for the children’s sake,
I have prayed and given things time to settle,
But today my off switch is stuck on anything but off or simmer.

Lord, You brought these friends into my life for a reason,
Never before have our differences been so apparent,
Our hearts cores so clearly exposed
Our understanding so obviously in different camps.
Is this Your way to say our friendship is out of season?

For today let’s keep me off of Facebook,
Nurture Your love in me and Your thoughts,
If this is Your way of calling me to take a stand,
To be an opposing voice to the rhetoric,
Let me react in a godly way and with a Christ-like look.

Meanwhile Lord, can we just keep everyone silent?
Between the pain, the uncomfortableness,
The lack of self-control with taking the medicine,
And the hormones racing through me,
I need silence, blindness or sleep mercifully sent.

Today’s poetry offering stems from a very real prayer between my heart and God’s ear recently. As the attitude in our country becomes more and more “non-Christian” I realize how precious the freedom to choose the God I worship is to me. If faced with denying God or losing my life I believe I am a Christian strong enough to choose Him through the end. If faced with denying God or my child’s life ending my confidence is shaken. I am her mother. My job is to nurture her into a young woman whose faith chooses God. Some costs are greater than our own lives. How about you? What shakes your confidence?

It’s an uneasy feeling that arrives
When I think of facing the decision,
Either denounce You and live or
Claim You as God and die.
I hope I can face that and do You proud,
Speaking Your name clear and loud.

Giving You my own life’s final breath
I believe I can do that without wavering,
My spouse and child will understand,
But there’s a weaker spot they can reach.
I pray it’s one I never have to face,
For it’s one of a very different race.

What if Lord, they threaten my child?
Even knowing they most likely will lie,
Promising her life if I deny You,
Will I, as her mother, be able to not go wild?
Will I proclaim You are the Lord God Almighty?
Refuse to deny You are God for all eternity?

How did You stand back God, when man,
Came dragging Jesus off for false charges?
How did You keep Yourself from stopping them?
These leaders of false teaching and corrupt man?
Only You could be that brave and right,
To assure us the chance to see His light.

Abba Father:
Forgive us.
Forgive our arrogance,
That we begin to imagine,
This life is all about us.
Forgive us.
Forgive our belief,
That we’re entitled,
To what impresses us.
Forgive us.
Forgive our sense of value,
What we deem worthy,
Is so often foolish.
Forgive us.
Forgive us where we fail,
For we often do,
Without giving it thought.
Forgive us.
dfav 2/20/17

When I promised You I would serve You forever,
I believed I knew rejection for various reasons.
Too fat…
Too poor…
Too dumb…
Plenty more…
But, what I knew was nothing, I was so naive,
It is still so hard to conceive,
I was that inexperienced.

When I stumbled along life’s path,
Eager to live the Prodigal lifestyle,
Socializing…
Dating…
Experimenting…
Living for happiness…
It’s clear I didn’t understand eternity in the moment,
Or the reality of the consequences forever spent,
From careless choices.

When politics seemed far removed from me,
I sold my vote for a saxophone song,
Cheap…
Easily fooled…
Craziness…
A segment on…
Late night talk shows gave way, I would come to see,
The price of being free,
As fodder for entertainment

When maintaining the status quo over rode
The principles of Your instructions, Lord,
Your Word…
Your Ways…
Your examples…
Your warnings…
The world took over so even basic morality so rapidly,
Smearing true goodness so overwhelmingly,
It’s hard to even see the evidence.

If chance should, indeed arrive again,
For our nation to unite under Your wing,
In humbleness…
In repentance…
In understanding…
In mourning…
May I and oh, so many, many more
Approach You at Heaven’s door,
To get us right with You again.
dfav 2/12/17

Our children come home asking,
“What does this word mean?”,
And the label is vile and vulgar,
You can’t ignore the question,
And answering is one of those
“Square your shoulders and be an adult” moments,
And our children look as if struck by ten ton beams,
Someone called them “that”? “Why?”

You realize, again, how useless are platitudes,
“Sticks and stones… Words will never hurt me.”
Wrong! Worthless as saying,
“It doesn’t matter we know the truth.”
But 99 out of 100 kids at school?
They believe this lie that morphs into
A life of its own before the 3:00 bell,
And how useless is it to say, “Let it be”?
Or talking to the school?

Anti-bullying policies may be tough on paper,
But the underbelly of them reeks,
Teachers can’t be there every second,
Police can’t monitor every social media site,
Friends have to go home sometime,
Self-defense only gets everyone in trouble,
Every temporary plug eventually leaks,
Being bullied hurts us all the way through.

So we’re left with why it happens,
And here’s the truth, we teach it.
Yes, we do, we create lies instead of accept facts in life,
We exaggerate mistakes to make ourselves look better,
We fight to have our rights, regardless.
We spread gossip like fertilizer,
We’re quick to protest rather than sit,
And examine the truth.

We don’t want it to be what it is but it is,
Because we have taught them,
Demand tolerance for your differences,
But don’t tolerate someone else’s.
Claim every privilege and blessing as your right,
And never, ever yield to the greater good,
Above all else pretend not to keep score but win,
This is the truth of bullying.

Until we teach everyone something different,
This is only going to worsen,
Fester like an untreated infection
Covered with pretty bandages,
Eased pain with misused medicine or pot,
While we dance around the issues,
Blame Hollywood for the cursin’,
But truth is that bullying starts at home.
-dfav 1/31/17

I have troubles,
Miseries that run deep,
It’s as if I’m steeped in them.
Steeped, like tea bags in boiling water.
And the answer?
The answer is to pray?
Don’t you know I am?
I’m trying?

In your troubles,
Do you think you’re alone,
Always pushing up hill,
Up hill, with everything pushing against you.
And the advice is to pray?
Don’t we realize you are?
All the time?
All the time.

Everyone has sorrows.
No one is immune.
What’s the purpose of God then?
What glory comes to Him from them?
His ways aren’t ours,
We need His mind to understand,
His mind to see the full story,
His mind for His story.

Today while I am praying,
I will pray also for you.
Like teabags steeping in hot water,
May my prayers soak our pain.
Our differences can be bridged,
If God reigns in our hearts,
I will love through Him.
Will you love through Him?
-dfav 1/26/17